OPENS SATURDAY FEBRUARY 7th
5p-7p

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Revolve presents two concurrent exhibitions, "Assisted Living," featuring recent drawings by James Huckenpahler, and its companion exhibition, "Influencer," featuring works by artists whose creative practices inform Huckenpahler's work. Despite the anguished, pearl-clutching gasps of some at the prospect that generative AI might extinguish authentic creativity, James Huckenpahler thinks AI is swell. In "Assisted Living" his recent works use poetic prompts to elicit possible histories and mytholgies of the arts community in which he marinates. He reconstitutes the local artists he'd heard of as a student, and the totems lying around their studios, as if reconstructed by an 18th-century naturalist from short verbal descriptions by drunken sailors. They are as wrong as Durer's rhinoceros transformed by Ovid. In parallel, "Influencer" brings together a group of artists whose practices have provided "food" in the form of extended dialogues - usually over beer and pizza - for Huckenpahler's work. Included are Colby Caldwell, Billy Colbert, Chris Combs, Santiago Cuccullu, Curry Hackett, Dean Kessmann, David Mordini, and the enigmatic collective known as "the other way."

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About the Artists:

James Huckenpahler makes pictures in Washington, DC. Though he works primarily with digital media, his work encourages a critical assessment of the ways digital tools can also limit our creative choices. He teaches digital media at George Washington University.

Colby Caldwell's work is a dialogue between the natural and the virtual, the organic and the digital. It investigates how color from the natural world can find relationships with found color in the “digital" world. In 2015, he co-founded REVOLVE (which is celebrating its 10th year) an art hub that hosts and encourages trans-media work. Colby also is a founding member of Photo+.

Billy Colbert is a Philadelphia-based artist whose work, often borrowing from popular culture, explores the complexities and compounded struggles of Black America’s splinters that are cultivated from holding on tight to the short end of the equality stick. He is a Professor of digital media at Delaware State University.

Chris Combs' artworks both incorporate and question technologies. Through handmade and custom-fabricated hardware, software, and enclosures, his electronic sculptures respond to themes of surveillance, control, and algorithmic bias—and the viewer, using facial recognition and motion sensing.

Argentinean born, Milwaukee-based Santiago Cucullu creates multi-media works, including spatially unified installations, wall-sized murals, sculptures and vibrant paintings on paper, soundscapes with the Ching Suru Radio Hour and video works.

Curry Hackett is a Brooklyn-based transdisciplinary designer, visual artist, and educator exploring Black relationships to land, media, and memory. His work works across scales and mediums to speculate on the aesthetics and ecologies of the American South.

Dean Kessmann is innovative contributor to the worlds of art and education from his base in Washington, DC, where he is Professor of Photography at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at The George Washington University.

David Mordini's recent work explores the incorporation of cutting-edge technologies, like 3D scanning and printing, into his work. He is the director Otis Street Arts Project, an art space that features artists’ studios, galleries, and a workshop/maker space.

*the other way* is an art collective that creates spaces, texts, objects, experiences, and imaginative engagements for trans living beyond emergency.

+++EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT+++

REVOLVE & Tracey Morgan Gallery are excited to announce our collaborative residency at the Community Space located at 821 Riverside Dr, #179, in Asheville, beginning in March, and through December 2026. From TMG’s press release:

“While our location will change, the spirit of TMG will remain. We will continue staging curated solo exhibitions by local, regional and national artists as well as thematic group shows and artist focused events. Since opening TMG in January of 2017, we have presented a robust program of over 70 solo and thematic group exhibitions in a range of media by emerging and established artists from all over the US.”

REVOLVE will continue to program the Project Space. We will also host and facilitate events and community needs in both spaces throughout the TMG residency.

Keep your eyes and ears open for updates on programming and collaborative events!

SUPPORT US HERE!

Revolve is a contemporary art space that functions as part gallery, part studio, part performance and gathering space. We host exhibitions, events, and happenings that push the boundaries between artist and audience. Our intention is focused on representing creative energies on a foundation of inclusion, accessibility and experimentation. We are volunteer-run by artists who believe in the power of community. We are committed to being a space that is sustainable for art while remaining accessible for all.

Our mission is to support the varied creative folks of Western North Carolina, as well as regions beyond, to represent many different communities and forms of expression. In doing so, we hope to build a community with connections to an intellectual landscape that reaches beyond our mountain borders.

Accessibility is important. Revolve is a place to grow together as a community of makers. We are happy to be able to provide time + space for your creative and communal experience, but we are committed to not tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment including but not limited to: homophobia, racism, sexism, transphobia, ageism, xenophobia, ableism. Revolve strives to create a safer space for marginalized communities and voices, we keep ourselves safe.

ADA-friendly: We rent from RAMP Studios and are not permitted to make the necessary changes to our space to be completely ADA-compliant. There are no automatic doors for building or bathroom access, and one portion of our gallery is only accessible by a small flight of stairs. You can experience most of our space safely with more than 3 feet of clearance for passthroughs, exhibitions permitting. If you have additional concerns, please reach out for additional information.